Coo-Kees - Christmas COOKIES!!

I wanted to make Christmas cookies to take to our friends this year.  I actually caught this baking bug from my cousin Bethany.  :-)   I made them - Carlos and I ate a bunch and then we ran out of time to take them to our friends (sorry guys LOL!!  Good thing I didn't tell em I was doing this) so I boxed them all up and took them to our friend Moses Uvere's video shoot.  That was fun.  So here are some pics and the link to the recipes.  They were awesome cookies - super easy and fun to make!

slice and bake cookies from Our Italian Kitchen

 Cookie Dough Bites

 Christmas Mints

 Candy Cane Blossoms from Baked Perfection

And dang....I don't have a link to this one.  Found it on Pinterest though and I think I pinned it.  :)

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Meet Daisy Mae

A friend of Carlos saw pictures that our friend James had taken of our cat Sawyer...LOL!  Yeah its one of those stories: a friend of a friend of a friend....anyway, so this guy saw pics of Sawyer and sent Carlos a message on FB.  He said his neighbors had a bengal cat that they wanted to give to a good home that already had a bengal.  We had been feeling bad about all the times that we left Sawyer home alone when we left for shows with someone only coming once a day to feed him.  We were thinking about getting a bengal kitten but daaanng, $600 or more to adopt one was just hard to even consider!!  So with the offer of a free bengal, we decided this would be a great idea!  (obviously)  On Saturday the 8th I drove to pick up Daisy Mae.  She is adjusting (slowly) to our home.  Its been three steps forward and two steps back.  But I think it will be awesome for Sawyer and her to be buddies. We think its cool that we have TWO bengal's and we got them both for free!  LOL!  Thanks for the hook-up God!  :)

Can you tell them apart?  It's really funny how much alike they are in appearance and in their mannerisms. 

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The Zoo

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Sawyer

I video Sawyer all the time cause I think he does funny things.  Here is a super short clip of him being crazy.

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Samantha

I got this new app on my phone that I am LOVING!  Its called iMovie and I am learning how to make videos. I decided to start with my nieces birthday party cause I had a lot of pics and video from it.  So here 'ya go!  My first video!  Probably gonna start doing more like it on this blog cause its something that I can do while Carlos and I are on the road. 

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Some Favorites

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the worth of a soul

.....And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? ....the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough....

I am sure that  "gaining the whole world" looks differently to everyone.  Relationships - money - status....not everyone seeks the same things.  But the pursuit of those things no matter what they are or in what combination we desire them in can be dangerous.  The choices that we make so we can gain what we desire here on earth...those are choices that affect eternity. 

I was reminded again today of the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.  That story can address any area of our lives where we are seeking more of this world.  He tells her that He will give her water - living water - and she will never thirst again.  Our dry and thirsty souls crave a water that will soothe and fill it up - but we look everywhere else for satisfaction and never find it.  In the process of chasing the satisfaction of our souls how many times have we (myself included) made a choice that has given away a piece of our soul to the enemy?  Stepped on someone to achieve status, had a sexual relationship outside the marriage bed, lied and gotten a few extra dollars??  Those choices affect us...affect our soul...traps us into the very things we seek after till they become a prison....and what does it do for us?  What does it profit us to gain it all and yet we lose our soul in the process?

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Mulligatawny

Found a recipe for mulligatawny on Bakingdom!  It is sooo good!  Because I didn't know how to pronounce "mulligatawny" I Googled it (of course) and found out all sorts on interesting info on the origin of this soup.

So a very brief lesson:

Mulligatawny means pepper water and apparently was "developed" or "created" by the Indian's for the British who were stationed in India because of the British peoples love of soup.   (I didn't know the British loved soup??)   And since being introduced to the Western culture it has many variations. 

Who knew soup could have such a history?? So if anyone ends up making this let me know how you like it!  :-)

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Fun!

Just saw my mints on Bake It Pretty!  Over the Christmas holidays I made these:

I took the pic with my cell phone so it didn't pick up the colors so great, it was way more blue.  Anyway, the snowflakes are a butter mint recipe that I found off  Bake It Pretty.  She talked about her grandmother making those mints for weddings and I was like, "OMG!  So did mine!"  My grandmother would make the leaves and roses.  I remember her making them and lining a Tupperware container with wax paper and layering them in.  We (girl cousins) only got one if there was no room left.  So it won't surprise you to learn that when I made them I kinda gorged and made myself sick.  Later I made dough again and divided it up, colored one green and one red and then added coconut flavoring to one and raspberry to the other.  DELISH!!  Then I got the bright idea to just make vanilla "mints"  (thanks mom)! I bought a flower mold and made several bright colors.  To see those check out the Bake It Pretty Blog.  I am #6.  :-)  And by the way, if you are not reading the Bake it Pretty blog regularly, you are totally missing out! 

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